Full Metal Alchemist : Asylum
by Orychle
Summary: A contiuation of the series, beginning a year or so after the series ended. The story picks up a few months after Hohenheim's death. if you haven't seen all of the series, there will be some spoilers there is manman, womanman hentai ill try to keep it min
1. Hohenheim Gone

-1Edward Elric sat pale-faced in the corner of the dark, damp bedroom. Sounds of a struggle came from outside his window as the musty stench of the city wafted in.

"Al…" He sighed breathlessly. He could see his breath in this frigid enviroment. The heater hadn't worked in three weeks, which was about as long as it had been since he'd left this room.

Warm tears fell from a now 18 year old Edward's red eyes. He watched in silence as it coursed down his cheap metal arm. How he missed Winry's auto-mail. He misssed everything from the old world…his world. He threw his head back in anger, slamming it against a wall. With a painful groan, he closed his eyes and relived a two-month old memory:

_"Edward…" his father's raspy voice echoed softly against his bedroom walls. "You knew this day would come quickly, why do you cry so hard?" The putrid stench of rotting flesh intruded upon the salty scent of hot tears on Edward's cheeks._

_He screamed "But father, what'll I do? I've only had you with me the past few years, I don't have anyone else!" He mentally noted to kick himself later for having such an out of character moment. He wasn't acting himself, but it was understandable in the situation._

_"Edward", the old man put his hand out to his son, "You will be fine, I am paying the price for my sins, as you have." His eyes shot to Ed's false arm. _

Edward's eyes flashed open as he felt a rat scurry across his bare leg. He glared down at his own form, pale and scarred. A flash of blood streamed silently down his inner thigh to the floor. Glaring at it, he tried hard to remember when he started cutting himself, but could only achieve memories of how blissful it felt.

He visually shifted to his left leg, which was wooden and nicked. Not self-inflicted, however, but a reminder that he couldn't fight as well in this world as he did in his own. No, in his world, the three punks that kicked his ass would've been dead without having a chance.

Lost in thought, it took him a bit to realize someone was pounding away at the front door. He contemplated yelling at them to fuck off, then decided he didn't' want to waste the energy. It was probably just the landlord, anyway. The short, balding bastard came and beat on the door three times a week, demanding the rent money Edward didn't have.

The pounding finally stopped, and Ed chuckled softly as his eyes spanned the dimly lit room. Alchemy symbols were everywhere- painted, chalked and even carved right into the stone. He had tried every symbol he knew, and even a few he had never seen before, yet remembered all the same.

To his dismay, alchemy didn't work in this world. He wondered if it ever had. And yet… somehow his father had used it to come back to their world. He concentrated hard, trying to recall anything his father may've said that could give him a clue as to how to do it. The harder the thought, though, the worse his head hurt. Images flashed through his head; painful memories he couldn't forget.

Vision after vision plagued him, memories slammed the back of his eyes like sledgehammers. Voices echoed in the back of his mind, singing, screaming. He tried to ignore them, did his best to push them out. Finally, with a scream, his eyes flashed back open and it stopped. A wicked smile crossed his face as realization dawned. He knew how his father did it; and knew how he could, too.

_"Dear Ed,_

_I dreamt of you last night. You were there in Colonel Mustang's office, laughing and joking with everyone. I was there, too, but you couldn't see me. I woke up crying, yet smiling._

_Winry says not to pay too much attention to the negative aspect, but to focus on the good parts. I can't shake the feeling of uselessness I felt in the dream, but I'm filled with warmth every time I think of you smiling again. I miss you brother, come home soon._

_Love,_

_Alphonse_

"Al, I don't see why you bother," Winry sighed and warpped her arms around Al's neck. He was older now, and after Ed's disappearence, Winry stopped looking at Al as a little brother, and more like a lover. They were there for each other in the beginning of the ordeal, back when Al had no memories of his life as a "tin can", as he now puts it. As he became more adept at Alchemy, however, his memories started to come back, and he needed Winfry more and more each day. Their companionship became full of love, and eventually, passion. On her 18th birthday, Alphonse proposed, and Winry accepted; a few months later she was Mrs. Winry Elric.

Winry sighed as she kissed Al's ear, "he won't be back, Al." A single tear fell from her eye and hit the letter he had just finished.

"I know, Win; but it helps me to do this." He stood up, and lifted the letter from the table. Taking a few steps back (winry doing the same), Al stared intently at the paper, concentrating.

"Send this to Ed!" He screamed, and let go of the paper, it floated two inches down before Al's palms slammed it from both sides. A brilliant flash, and the apper was gone.

Al lowered his arms and burst into tears, soon collapsing to the floor. Winry knew from past experience that he wanted to be left alone during these "fallouts"; so she quietly left the room and closed the door. As she walked down the hall, sobbing quietly, her heart sank with every agonized screaming of Ed's name from Al's study.

"Watch it, asshole!" A drunkard slurred at Ed, after being hit in the back of the head with the young man's metal arm. Ed just ignored him and pressed on to his goal, a devilish grin plastered on his face.

He put his flesh hand into his pocket, and groped the letter that had appeared at his doorstop just as he was leaving. The smile stretched further, and if possible, became more evil.

"I'm coming home, Al. I'm coming home." He muttered under his breath as he pushed his way down a dark street littered with drug-dealers, whores and thugs.

Finally, he stopped. His gaze fell upon a set of rusty iron gates. A fire of hatred and passion flared in his eyes momentarily as he started walking toward the crumbling walls of the Hallowcrest Cemetary.

"Here I come…Father."

"Al?" Winry's voice was but a whisper in the darkened bedroom.

"Mm?" Al rolled over toward his wife and slid his arm over her revealed midriff. He nipped lightly at her neck as she went on.

"You never told me how you do it…" Her tone never changed, but a slight quiver shook it.

Al chuckled softly, "You know how it's done, honey," he laughed gently as he slid his hand down her stomach.

"Al!" She laughed out loud and caught his hand before anything else started again. "I didn't' meant that!" She turned her head to face him. "I meant the alchemy. It's not like normal alchemy, not by far."

"Oh. That." He sighed and rolled onto his back. "Well," another exasperated sigh, "I don't know realy. I know Ed could transmutate without a circle because of the what happened that night."

"Your mom?" SHe interjected softly, she could tell the memories still bothered Ed.

"Yeah. And I can only assume it's because of where I've been that I can do it without a circle, too."

"That makes sense," Winry sighed, then fell into silence as she contemplated Al's words. She had forgotten he was even there until he spoke again:

"It feels like it comes from somewhere else inside of me now. Before, it felt like it came from my arms, now it feels like it comes from deep inside my heart…" His words drifted off into silence, the dreamy way they left, lulling Winry to sleep.


	2. Homunculi

-1A flash of lightening blazed through Ed's eyes. His face was dirty, and his hair matted with either mud or blood. He grunted as he moved another shovelful of dirt from his father's grave.

"Fuck! Couldn't you have had a goddamn crypt instead? You had the money for it, you cheap bastard." Hours later, the rusted shovel slammed hard against the cedar wood of his father's coffin lid.

"Bout fucking time!" He howled as he moved the rest of the dirt away.

With the dirt finally away, Ed could freely remove the lid; as he did, a horrid odor hit him hard. It may have been just two months since his father had died, but the man's body had been rotting for years before that.

Ed let himself laugh heartily as he gazed upon his father's body, "Oh yeah, Philosopher's Stone did you TONS of good." Although his sarcasm was lost in the corpse, he smiled as if he was in front of an audience.

Without warning, that smile quickly went grim as a voice echoed in the darkness.

"It's about time, Full Metal." Lust's sultry voice wove its way about the headstones and markers as smoothly as the night wind itself. Ed turned his head upwards to face her. She hadn't changed at all, save for not being sealed anymore.

"lust, nice to see you've pulled yourself back from hell." Ed smirked, "Now what the hell do you want?"

Her black lips twitched slightly as she raised a thin left eyebrow. She gave him a smile that sent cold chills through his entire body, even the artificial parts.

"We know what you're doing, Full Metal. And _they_ know, too" She stooped down into the grave, "and they're not happy about it, either."

"_They_?" Ed scoffed, "Who, Greed? Envy?" He clenched his fist and gave her an icy stare. At this, Lust burst out in a psychotic fit of laughter.

"You may've grown quite a bit in this world, Full Metal, but you are no match for me without your alchemy or auto mail."

Ed, knowing she was right, let out a disgusted sigh.

"And no, I was not referring to the other homunculi." She continued, "I'm talking about _them_, the things behind the gate."

Every part of Ed's body froze up and his eyes widened. The voices returned again, loud, singing, and screaming. A thousand vocalic claws ripped at his skull fighting to get out.

"NO!" He screamed. His body finally obeying frenzied commands, he threw his hands over his ears, trying to block it out somehow, or maybe just to keep it from exploding out of his head.

Lust started to fade from his vision, darkness spreading across his eyes. His own screams were now inaudible over the darkness. He felt as if he were dying, falling into a black abyss.

"Full Metal!" Wake up you pint-sized psycho!" Lust's voice began ringing high over the voices in Ed's head, which finally began to recede. The colors returned to the world and Ed found himself face up in his father's grave.

Lust was standing over him, a stare full of hate and…fear?

"You ever pull that shit again, I'll rip your dick off and toss it into the ocean!" Her voice was sharp and cross, yet concealed a bit of sympathy.

"Fuck off, you think I LIKE my little episodes?" He stood and brushed himself off before speaking again: "Besides, why the hell do you care? I sealed you, remember? Not to mention you trying to kill me repeatedly."

Lust chuckled politely, "Yes, but that was in the past. And as far as killing me goes…" She helped him out of the grave before finishing: "I was already dead, remember?"

Ed gasped slightly at the level of sorrow in her voice. "I-"

"No." She cut him off and looked him square in the eye, "Don't have sympathy for me. It's worthless and you don't have time for it."

"What?" Ed was still a bit dizzy from his blackout.

"You were digging up your father's corpse because of what he is, right?" Ed eyed her. How could she have known? Did she understand better than him?  
Her next worlds made Ed's soul fly: "Your assumptions are all correct, Full metal. Your fathers body, while half rotted before death, still retains a large amount of the Philosopher's Stone's power. Enough even, to get you home."

Ed's serious face split open into a maniacal smile, reserved usually for the maddest of mad scientists.

"I'm glad _that_ made you smile. There's more. They also know and know what you are planning. As I said before, they're not too happy about it. They've revived us Homonculi as hired assasins."

"You came to kill me?" the anger in Ed's voice was as deep and painful as a knife to the heart. "Well, come on then, just do it!" Ed threw his arm out, his artificial one dangling lifelessly at his other side.

"No. I was sent here to kill you, but I had not intentions of doing it." She let out a heartful sigh and sat down on a nearby headstone. "I'll be honest, I great rather attached to you. I can't imagine taking your life." She raised here eyes to him, they were misty and beautiful. "I came to help you."

"Why would you want to help me?" Ed's voice was harsh but curious.

Lust simply smiled and looked past him at the open coffin. "That decrepit corpse isn't just your way home, it's also my ticket to freedom, and humanity."

Ed scoffed, "Still chasing that one, I see." He wouldn't look her in the eyes but knew her stare was cold.

"Yes, I am." Her words were toned to slap him, instead they sounded almost like a plea.

"Fine, what do I need to do?" He let out a heavy sigh and looked into Lust's eyes.

"Winry!" Al shot up in bed, knocking the covers back. "WINRY!"

She rushed into the room and gasped, not only was Al drenched in sweat, he was covered in the symbols of the philosopher's stone.

"Al! What happened!" Winry rushed to his side and threw herself on the bed beside him, but distancing herself, showing how afraid to touch him she was at the moment.

"I don't know, I was dreaming about all of us being together again: you, me and Ed. Then all of a sudden, there was a bright yellow light and I found myself standing in front of a large stone doorway.

"And there was a voice, many voices actually, crying and screaming all at once. Then, one voice yelled out 'Stop him, or all is lost.' And a huge black hand flew from the door and grabbed me. I tried to break free, but it was so strong. Then another voice spoke, this one coming from inside my head: "Stop him, you can now. You are the only one who can." The hand tightened until I couldn't breathe.

"That's when I woke up."

Winry's eyes had become large, and her jaw was completely fallen. "Wh-what does it mean?" She placed a hand on top of Al's.

He looked at her hand, then directly into her eyes. "I just don't know."

Three hours after Lust had arrived, she and Ed had his father's corpse out of the coffin and into an alchemists circle in a nearby woody clearing.

"Ready, Full Metal?" By now, Lust's voice had become unsure.

"As ready as I'll ever be. What do I do?"

"Kneel by his body and place both your hands on it as if he were the circle." Ed followed the directions immediately. Lust stood outside of the circle as she began:

" A sacrifical life, send him back to his world." And without another word, her fingers extended and lashed across Ed's throat, revealing his jugular vein.

Ed looked down to see his arms and hands covered in his blood. "Wh-?" He tried to speak, but it just came out in gurgles. He was forced to watch his life force flow over his father's soulless form. As it hit the ground, a faint blue light began to glow. He tried to gasp, he knew what was happening; and before the thought fully formed, the faint light became brilliant as the circle exploded around him. His eyes grew heavy and just before he passed out, he heard Lust's voice:

"I'll see you again soon, Full Metal. In Our world."


	3. Return

-1Lust's voice echoed in Ed's mind as the darkness threatened to swallow him whole. He tried to force it away, but the voices began to scream at him, insulting him. This went on for an eternity until everything stopped abruptly.

He opened his eyes to a clear blue sky. His sky.

Instinctively, he there his hand to his throat, which was of course fine. It took him a moment to realize which hand was rapped around his throat. It wasn't his real flesh one, it was the cool, strong metal of his auto-mail arm. He jumped up and checked his left leg: also auto-mail. Not only had he gotten back to his world, he'd been given back his old body, still half metal and a few years older, but his body none the less.

Takin ga moment to survey his surroundings he realized he was just outside of central, and decided he would get his old gang's help in getting home. After a moment of gathering himself, he set off towards his old military headquarters.

"Is he ok, Doctor?" Winry bit her lower lip and fidgeted with her hair as she awaited a response.

"As far as I can see. You say he just screamed and then collapsed, eh?" After a nod from Winry, he continued. "Hm. I don't know then. I'd say it was tied to these symbols, but that would be a personal opinion. Professionally, I can only say that I don't know." With a sad look, the elderly doctor gathered his things and left in silence.

"Winry" Al's voice was soft with weakness. "Something's about to happen." He tried to raise his head, but Winry rushed to him and placed a gentle hand on it, settling it back.

"No, Al. You're too weak." Tears began to course down her porcelin face.

"Look at my palm, Win." Al turned his wrist over slowly.

Her heart sank as she leaned down to look at it. There, in the center was a small alchemic emblem.

"It's Ed's symbol. The one he always used." Al closed his eyes and let his head sink back into his pillow. "He's coming back, Win. And I'm supposed to…"

Winry's eyes were gushing out tears like a waterfall and her mind was cloudier than a London fog. Before she could even form a thought to speak, Al continued:

"That's what the dream meant. They were telling me what I had to do. Wherever Ed is, he's trying to get back, and whatever that door was, he'll probably have to pass through it. There's something behind that door that wants him stopped, and it wants me to do it."

"Al, you can't. I mean, he's your" but she couldn't even finish the thought without sobbing over even more.

Al rested his other hand on top of Winery's "Look at me, Winry. Whoever is on the other side of that door is powerful enough to do this to me, but I doubt they'd do it unless something bad is going to happen."

"But Ed's. After all you went through. It' can't be true, it's got to be something else!"

"Oh, but it's not, children." Al shot up, despite his exhaustion, and gawked, stunned. Winry, too, recognized the voice and turned slowly, her face stone and eyes drying.

"Hello Alphonse, Miss Rockfall."

Al finally found his voice: "M…Mother?"

The hustle of Central had grown since Ed had been away, and he found himself lost in the crowds more than once. After some time, and much frustration, he finally found himself standing before the Headquarters building. A twinge of nostalgia sought him, and brought back memories of better times. He became so lost in memorial sea of smiles that he almost didn't notice someone stand behind him.

"it's not possible," a serious and slightly monotonic voice came from behind, "Full Metal?"

Ed's grin split from ear to ear as he turned around to find himself a good three inches taller than his former boss, Roy Mustang.

Mustang was taken slightly aback by Ed's height and appearance. It took Ed a moment to realize how he must've appeared: His hair was matted and dirty, and he was still clothed in the apparel of the other world.

His ex-colonel cleared his throat and looked up into Ed's face, bearing what ed expected to be a smile (though his mouth had barely moved).

"A pleasure to see you ok, Full Metal. Even if it has been awhile." This time his face most definitely shifted into a smile, and Ed couldn't help but lunging at him and wrapping his arms around Mustang.

"I can't tell you how much I missed your face, you stiff-assed dog!" Ed laughed and sobbed all at once. "Where's the rest of the gang? Hawkeye, Hughes?"

Roy couldn't help but let out a laugh and return the hug. "They're all inside, and I'm sure they'd be more than happy to see you, as well."

They released their embrace and stood a moment more. Despite their previously sordid relationship, they were genuinely pleased to see each other. After all, they had both grown quite a bit.

"Well," Roy straightened himself out and nodded, "Let's get you inside and into something a bit more reasonable. Come, you can use my personal shower room, and I believe we have something that'll suite you fine." He led Ed through the doors and down the hallway to a large ornate elevator.

Ed whistled as he looked around, "Very posh, Colonel." His voice echoed slightly in the hallway, but Roy kept quiet. They stepped into the elevator and rode up in silence. Ed watched the numbers go up.

One, two, three. Mustang's office was on the next floor. Four, five…six. The elevator stopped.

"C-Colonel?" Ed was a little disturbed, the sixth floor was reserved for the Fuehrer whenever he came to Central. He leaned forward and whispered, "Roy, this is the Fuehrer's floor, what are we--" and that's when he noticed it: The Fuehrer Emblem on Roy's shoulder patch.

_Fuehrer_ Mustang turned around with a grin bigger than Ed's own when he had arrived.

"Oh? Did I forget to tell you? My mistake."

Ed's jaw dropped and he yelled "Congrats," moving in for another bear hug but was stopped.

"After a shower." He smirked and led Ed to the Fuehrer shower room.

Winry's voice filled with anger, "That's not your mother, Al; it's Sloth!"

Al shook his head to clear his thoughts. He tightened his eyes shut and reopened them. Winry was right, and there was definitely a difference between this thing and his real mother.

Without Al noticing, Winry had pulled a gun from the bed table's drawer and had it pointed at Sloth's head. "What the hell are you doing here? Haven't you put Al through enough?" Even though her hands were trembling, Al knew Winry would pull the trigger to protect him. Of course, he also knew it wouldn't matter: the homunculi could not be killed my normal means.

"That that useless thing away, child. I mean your man no harm." Sloth began walking towards them, slowly, her hands raised slightly to show her empty hands. As she got to Winry, she stopped and gave the young girl a soft expression, and the gun was lowered.

"Good, now that we're all on the same level." She went to the bed and sat by Al. Before she spoke, she looked at him and felt a small flash of something.

"I…" Al began, but Sloth stopped him.

"You don't have to look at me, I understand." Al stared a moment longer than focused his sight in the opposite direction.

"Why are you here?" He began.

"As you know, something as happened." Her tone was serious, but Winry and Al gasped as if they had just reached the punch line of a morbid joke.

"_Has_ happened?" Al said, the macabre surprise still in his voice.

"Yes. _Has_." Sloth looked him over. "You think that would've happened unless something had happened?" She looked between the two of them and let out a heavy sigh. "Well I guess you would not have known when it happened.

"Never the less, something has happened. Your brother found a means of crossing back to this world." At this, Al jumped from the bed and screamed "What!" The women could not tell his expression beyond shock, but Winry noted a small hint of happiness.

"Yes, he is back in this world. He broke the rules of Alchemy and tore open their gate. And let me tell you, they are NOT pleased." She stood up and moved to the window. Gazing out into the luscious green fields, she continued:

"THey revived us homunculi and sent us out to stop him in the other world. Not only did tha tprove fruitless, but it sealed the deed. Lust got to him before anyone else and helped and has helped him." There was such anger in the final words. She mumbled something under her breath that neither Al nor Winry caught.

"So," she turned back to them bearing a weak smile, "Thanks to _her_, our job has become a quite a deal harder."

"Your 'job'? And just what is your 'job'?" Al's words came out harsher than he intended.

Sloth looked at him, slightly confused. "To kill Edward Elric, of course."

"Woa, slow down Sloth. I assumed I'd have to stop him, maybe even fight him. But…KILL him? Why? Just because he found a loophole and pissed _them_ off?" Al wore a face of anger Winry had never seen, nor could she have imagined it.

Reacting equally angered, Sloth slammed her fist against the wall, "Dammit, don't you see what your brother has done? He's completely disregarded the rules of alchemy, the rules of Reality even!

"Where he was, alchemy did not exist, it wasn't allowed. To maintain balance one of the two worlds had alchemy and the other didn't. Now thanks to him, and that bitch Lust, the other world is falling into chaos. The energy they released has caused endless natural disasters! The only way to rectify it is for the blood of that worlds first alchemist to spill over an alchemic seal binding closed the gate between worlds."

Al was silent, Winry sobbed quietly. He knew it had to be true, yet he wasn't sure it was the only way. With a hard heart, Al began to pull on his boots, "How do we find him?"

Sloth smiled, "he's at Central now, I can get you there by nightfall." When she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Winry was about to speak, she added: "I can only get you there, Al."

Winry began to argue, but decided against it. She stood there, fuming at Sloth.

"Well, let's go." All was soft-spoken, and Winry's heart broke knowing what was on his mind.

Ed came out of the shower room completely refreshed. He stood before the full length mirror , admiring his auto-mail. Oh how he'd missed it. He couldn't remember when he'd seen something so beautiful. He glanced around him to make sure he was alone, when he was sure, he removed the towel from around his waist. He smiled to himself, he looked different in this world, much different. It wasn't just the auto-mail, his skin was different. The air, his surroundings, hell, even his 'other world' clothes looked different; grimy and nasty, but different.

He stood there a moment more, running his flesh hand over his torso, across his chest, abs. He couldn't' believe where he was, and he felt as if the whole time he was in the other world he was in someone else's body. Though they looked exactly identical, the other body just 'felt' different.

It didn't matter now, though. He was back; back in his world, back in his body. His gaze rose from his eyes from his body to his face. He mentally noted he needed to shave, yet his real focus was his hair.

He had not cut it since before he left his world, and it had become overbearing and wild. It no longer matched the man he now was. In a fit of anger, truth be told, madness; he transmuted his auto-mail arm into a sharp blade and sliced his hair off from the nape of his neck and around the sides. In the end, his hair ended up being shorter than even Mustang's.

He took a deep breath of relief, he felt lighter all over.

"Ed!" Hughes burst through the double doors to Ed's left, a grin stretching across his face and a backpack in his hand.

It took Hughes all of two seconds to realize Ed was completely naked. He gave him a glance-over and continued to walk in, shutting the doors behind him.

"I see you've grown," he joked, and tossed the bag to Ed. "The Missus made these for you right after you disappeared. She kept saying you'd want something fresh when you came back. She made them a bit bigger, I hope they fit you though, you've gotten so tall!"

Looking in the bag, Ed found a pair of black leather pants, a sleeveless red top with mercury's rod embroided on the front in black; and a long coat, identical to his old red one, but this one was sleeveless and black where his was red.

"Thanks, Hughes!" He said as he rushed the new clothes on. They fit perfectly, Hughes' wife sure did seem to have a sixth sense about size.

Knowing he would be told anyway, Ed asked: "How's your daughter?"

This was probably a stupid idea, instigating a conversation about Hughes' daughter. He had the tendency to go on for hours about every little precious thing she did. Ed didn't regret for one minute asking, though. He liked the kid almost as much as Hughes did.

Instead of the normal, energetic response, Hughes' smile faded and he got very quiet.

"She- um," he cleared his throat, "She isn't well." He fidgeted slightly in place before continuing:

"A few months ago, she became very ill. At first we thought it was just a bad cold or flu, but after a few house calls from the doctor…"

"What's wrong? What is it?" Ed had finished dressing and moved over to his friend's side. Hughes immediately threw his arms around.

"Oh, Ed!" He sobbed, "She's not well at all- she's been seeing things, hearing things that just aren't there." Here he looked up at Ed, his eyes still full of tears. "They stuck her in an asylum, Ed!" He collapsed to the floor and began crying loudly.

Kneeling down, Ed lay a hand on his back to comfort him, yet just as he had found Hughes' shoulder, the man stood up, wiping away tears.

"I'm sorry Edward. I- I try not to think about it when I can. It's very painful."

Ed's heart sank a little knowing Hughes had to push his daughter from his mind. He had been so excited when she was born, and seemed to have memorized every movement the girl had ever made. "I'm sorry I brought up the memories, Hughes." Ed finally choked out, his eyes had become a bit salted as well.

"Thank you, but it's ok," Hughes beamed. "This is no time for tears anyway, Ed! She'll be ok, we need to focus on the here and now. You're back! It's time to celebrate!" He began to do a little dance of happiness as if to say it was time for a party.

Ed envied this man's stamina, his devotion and self-discipline. Hughes had so much joy inside of him, Ed wouldn't be the one to bring down the home-coming. He considered giving Hughes a slight look of compassion, but couldn't resist a heart-felt laugh when he looked at the odd way the man was moving around.

"Yeah, let's go find the others." He finally said, and gave Hughes an 'everything is great' smile. Hughes responded by wrapping his arm around Ed's shoulders and leading him out of the room.

Sloth had led Al to an open field a bit away from Winry's house.

"Here." She said and stopped. Al just looked around confused.

"An open field? How is this going to get us to Central by nightfall?" He was beginning to get aggravated, and began to host paranoid thoughts of sloth having drug him away from the house just to kill him.

Sloth grew an irritated face, "Just shut up and stand back."

After Al had taken a few steps back, she knelt down and lightly touched the ground. It glowed a faint, sickly green for a moment then burst into light, flash-blinding Al. When his eyes readjusted, he saw an alchemic circle on the ground, and a luminescent doorway above it.

Sloth waved her arm before it, "You first, don't worry, there's no danger in it." She chuckled softly and stood stark still, arm out, waiting on Al.

Reluctantly, he held his breathe and stepped through.

For a few moments, everything was fine, but seconds after crossing into the doorway, Al grew very nauseous.

"Sloth?" His words echoed endlessly. He thought for a moment he heard laughter, or crying. It was faint, and he passed it off as his own voice echoing back to him.

Wherever he was, was very bright. It was as if he was walking around in the green light, nothing palpable around him. Just as he felt he was about to be sick, or go mad, everything went dark.

When the light began filtering back into vision, he almost immediately recognized it as Central's skyline. His jaw dropped slightly, it takes two days by train to get to Central, and he just left he and Winry's home not even ten minutes earlier.

"Ready?" Sloth had appeared behind him, as if she were the wind itself, startling him a bit.

"Yeah, where are we heading?" Al asked, never taking his eyes off the skyline. It had been a few months since he'd been there, but that was during the day. He forgot how beautiful the skyline could be at night.

"Military Headquarters. We're going to pay your friend, Fuehrer Mustang a visit. I expect we'll find your brother in his company." Sloth finished and began walking, not looking back to see if Al was following or not.

They walked for a bit without speaking, and then something occurred to Al. "Hey sloth?"

"Mm?" She didn't falter or turn around.

"I thought homunculi couldn't use alchemy, but that was an alchemy circle back there, wasn't it?" He tried to step up his walking pace so he could be beside Sloth.

A soft laugh pulsed from Sloth's breast. "Yes, that was alchemy back there, and no, we homunculi can't use alchemy, _normally_." She glanced over to Al, smiling slightly when she saw the bemused expression. "The ones who revived us gave us the means to complete our job. Other than that, I cannot use alchemy. If I wanted to use it right now just to show you I could, it wouldn't work. It will only work if what I'm doing is required to aide with my task." She nodded slightly as if to say 'and that's that', but Al couldn't help but notice a slight twinge of anger or jealousy in the final words.

"But what about Lust? You said she helped Ed get back, wouldn't she have had to use alchemy like what you just used?"

Sloth's face contorted with anger, "_She_ didn't use the alchemy, she just knew how it was done and instructed your brother."

Al simply nodded, he felt as if there was something Sloth wasn't telling him about Lust and Ed, but he wouldn't press it any farther. Whether she was there to help or not, Sloth was a force to be reckoned with when angry.

They continued on towards Central, it was a bit of a walk, Al noticed; he hadn't really realized how far out from Central they actually were. He tried to pass the time with small talk, but Sloth's responses were short or merely grunts. He finally gave up as they were entering the city.


End file.
